04.06.25
Today is our final Sunday of lent, next week is Palm Sunday and then the next is Easter, or Resurrection Sunday. We have traveled with Jesus and seen what was of upmost importance to Jesus, to the people, and to us, along the way. We have accompanied Jesus on this journey since he turned his face to Jerusalem.
I’m actually becoming more and more convinced that this was not as much a journey to the cross as it was a journey for us and all peoples. I think the cross was actually just a temporary roadblock on Jesus’ journey and roadblock that Jesus sacrificially pushed through.
And now, thousands of years later, we watch as Jesus is just a short distance away from Jerusalem. But, and this is an important point, in what will be just moments from an earthly death, Jesus chooses to continue teaching the disciples, and us, how to live – this should be no surprise because that is exactly what Jesus was called to do on his journey for us…and all people, however, in moments when he could be working to avoid death, Jesus carries on teach about life.
An interesting thought – God is in the business of ‘teaching humans how to live. That is what led Moses to climb up the mountain when God would teach Moses how to live so Moses could then teach the people how to live. And now, in these final days Jesus is teaching us how to live.
This is a crucial time, what Jesus is saying, the thread that continues through all his moments – his acts of mercy and compassion, are not really any different than before. There was surely a sense of urgency, but, what is see is Jesus’ same commitment to truth and love.
If you remember nothing else, remember this thread – the assurance that we can never be so far away that God cannot find us and, we can never be so far away that God cannot run to embrace us.
Just like us, in our times, the people were in a time when they needed an assurance of love, they needed an outflow of hope and peace. A time when they, a time when we say, ‘Lord Have Mercy.’
So…
Jesus is coming closer to Jerusalem.
Jesus is coming closer to the cross.
Jesus will enter the city of Jerusalem as a hero.
Jesus will teach the teachable.
Jesus will heal the afflicted and the brokenhearted.
Jesus will confront the ones who spread deceit, those who hide behind religion to abuse the faithful and the frail, those who have allowed themselves to become tools of hatred and evil.
Jesus will strengthen the weak.
Jesus will leave footprints for the disciples and followers to step into.
Jesus, ultimately, will leave the city, not as a hero, but as a slaughtered and humiliated lamb.
Jesus, once inside of Jerusalem will not find a bed in the city until he is in the prison cell…
…and will then be carried to, and sealed in, a borrowed tomb.
Jesus will not leave a world hopeless, for that tomb, inside and out, was not impervious to true hope…nor was it void of unconditional love.
In the coming weeks as we continue to follow Jesus to the passover, to the arrest, to the trials, to the cross, to the tomb, to the womens’ sermon of resurrection to the disciples, to the men’s shock at the epiphany of Jesus alive, may we never forget, that Jesus endured for all of us as well as for all who are not us.
Our passage today is not filled with parables, instead it begins with a “Then’. A ‘Then’ in which Jesus gives the disciples an insight, which they will not understand, and then as he allows them to be a part of two moments, with 2 men, who miraculously do seem to grasp much of what the disciples miss.
Prior to the passage we heard, Jesus had taken his disciples aside and said to them,
“Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the ancient prophets will be accomplished. For the prophets wrote that I will be handed over to the gentiles, and I will be mocked and insulted and spat upon.
After that they will flog me and kill me, and on the third day I will rise again.” But the disciples understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what he said was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”
Now, along the way, Jesus’ told, reminded, his disciples and close followers of the promise of his own coming fate and all the horror that would accompany that.. Actually, in the book of Luke, Jesus shared this three times during the journey to Jerusalem.
- In the first time Jesus stressed his suffering, rejection, and ultimate death at the hands of the religious elite in Jerusalem: “the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes.”
- In the second time Jesus is far more abrupt, saying primarily that he will be betrayed into human hands.
- Then, in the third time, the final time, Jesus says that he will be handed over to the Gentiles, mocked by them, insulted, spat upon, flogged and ultimately killed.
Blended together the disciples had clearer picture of all that was ahead. Jesus will be rejected by the religious leadership, then he will be given into human hands, and finally he will be delivered to the Roman political powers who will mock and insult Jesus. The three together reveal the excruciating moments of the coming rejection of the Messiah by the hands of all humankind. And then we hear Jesus say… So that “everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be [was] accomplished.”
Ironically, three times, Jesus shared these reminders exclusively with his disciples, but still, “they understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what Jesus said to them was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”
To us, there was nothing hidden in what Jesus said, he used very clear words – Death, Murder, Mocking, Insulting, Spitting, Flogging, and, again, ultimately, Death
We can look back 2.000 years and understand, but, however, they were in a very different moment.
God had taken away their ability to fully grasp Jesus’ words, Jesus destiny, because they were not ready to see and own what Jesus was saying. Jesus’ words were not actually for that moment, Jesus’ words would be for later moments. But for now they did not own these words, but they would, they would have to before they could lead the church.
God put a roadblock up so that the disciples did not understand, and God, at the right and needed time, would remove that roadblock. Just like God often does with and for us.
However, the truth is, I think, that the disciples did not want to hear these words, because they could not fathom having the ability to survive apart from their teacher, Jesus.
The disciples subconsciously knew they could not handle Jesus’ words.
Ever have a moment like that? When words were coming that you knew you were not emotionally, physically, or spiritually ready to hear and process?
Now the disciples’ additional roadblocks, their doubts, their fears, their oncoming hopelessness, were all roadblocks of which God was fully aware. However, the disciples would have to remove these additional roadblocks, and at that moment, they could not attempt such an unimaginable task as accepting Jesus’ coming fate.
The interesting thing about roadblocks is that they seldom mean that the road can no longer take us to where we are going. Each morning Andrea and I drive up Berry Street to take her to the high school. Frequently, our way is temporarily, or long term, blocked by sewer pipe replacement, or postal/amazon delivery trucks, or flooding, or lawn care equipment, or a mile long back up that is never explained, or….you get it. Now, we never think the high school has disappeared, Andrea never calls in and says she will need to resign because she will never again be able to get to the school. No, we look for a solution, to a way to literally, or metaphorically, move the roadblock. We take a different path, we patiently (kind of) wait, we share the road with oncoming traffic taking turns getting around the obstacle…we don’t quit, we just figure out how to get around or get through the roadblock.
Roadblocks are a reality in all of life, even in our faith life. Often times we are not ready to address them, we remain stuck, until we are ready – then, life begins to make sense and progress is seen.
This morning our focus is on 2 men who have to face and deal with their roadblocks. 2 men who had a bucket full of roadblocks…
Interaction/Participation – This is where you come into this discussion. What are your perceptions of these two men – the blind man and the tax collector?
Notes
Blind Man
“The disciples (like all of us) fail to see Jesus for what he is, but the blind man doesn’t miss him. And in the blind man, who receives his sight because of his sight, there is a model for those who hear this Gospel reading: we too are called to set aside our earthly “vision” and to see Jesus for who he really is.”
Karl Jacobson, Senior Pastor, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Minneapolis, Minn.
Blind man Ignored crowds who were the roadblock, he pushed through with what he had – his voice.
Blind man identified Jesus as the son of David, understood beyond the Abrahamic connection that exists with all Isrealites. He did something the disciples were unable to do, he removed the roadblock of understanding who Jesus was.
It is a kyrie eleison moment…’Have Mercy On Me!/
Zacchaeus
Jesus invites himself to, and into, Zacchaeus house
Assumption that Zacchaeus unethically took more than called for
Again, a Barrier of people, alliegience, judgement, height, hatred, outcast, dismissed, contrast between the blind man and the tax collector. Jesus is for all people – following up on what you said last Sunday.
Jesus is for the person with all the power and none of the power. He’s for the victim and the victimizer. Beautiful and probably offensive to some. Andrea
Neither man permitted a man made, or any other roadblock to stop them from seeing Jesus.
Closing
Both men were seen by Jesus after the men had removed their own roadblocks.
What roadblock do you need to move or to be removed?
richard alan anthony 